The rise of Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the new star of the Trump administration

Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she joined Trump's campaign in 2016 because he is "a champion of working families, not Washington-Wall Street elites."
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House deputy press secretary, has gained prominence in recent months as she's taken on more public-facing duties on President Donald Trump's communications team.

Unlike many of the president's top aides, Sanders was bred in politics. She's the daughter of former Arkansas governor and two-time presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, and she served as field director for her father's 2002 gubernatorial reelection campaign, was the national political director for his 2008 presidential campaign, and headed his 2016 presidential bid.

"I always say that when most kids are seven or eight years old out jumping rope, she was sitting at the kitchen table listening to [political commentators] analyze poll results," Mike Huckabee told Fox News in May.

Her work on several Republican politicians' campaigns landed her on Time's 40 Under 40 list in 2010, alongside other top political minds, including Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin and Nick Ayers, who was selected this week to be Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff. In her Time interview, Sanders called her father her political "inspiration," and praised President Barack Obama for addressing what she said was the most overlooked issue facing the nation: kids who are "victims of broken families."

Following Huckabee's withdrawal from the 2016 Republican primary race in February 2016, Sanders signed on as a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, later becoming a frequent spokesperson. Since January, she's served as the principal deputy press secretary at the White House and, more recently, has shared press briefing responsibilities with Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

Sanders followed in her dad's footsteps from a young age, attending college at his alma mater, Ouachita Baptist University, a private liberal arts school in Arkansas. After college, she worked for the Department of Education under President George W. Bush, worked on Bush's reelection campaign in 2004, and staffed a couple of Senate campaigns before joining her dad's 2008 presidential campaign. She has called the former governor a "hero."

On the Trump campaign, Sanders was tasked with developing communications targeting faith leaders, gun rights supporters, and military groups. She frequented cable news networks as a surrogate, defending Trump's actions and explaining his policy positions.

Sanders is married to a Republican political strategist, Bryan Sanders, whom she hired to work on her father's 2008 campaign. The two married in 2010, co-founded a political consulting firm, Second Street Strategies in Little Rock, Arkansas, and have two daughters and a son all under the age of 5.

As principal deputy press secretary, Sanders works with Lindsay Walters, her co-deputy press secretary, and press secretary Sean Spicer to liaise with the news media and craft the administration's public messaging.

Sanders first took on White House press briefing responsibilities on May 5, when she filled in for Spicer, who was out on Naval Reserve duty. Since then, she has become a regular behind the briefing podium.

Ever since Stephanie Grisham, now Melania Trump's communications director, and Mike Dubke, the former White House communications director, left Trump's communication team, Sanders has become more visible and is considered a top candidate to take over Spicer's job if his responsibilities change.

White House deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders works in her office at the White House in Washington on March 8, 2017.AP Photo/Evan Vucci

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Mike Huckabee called Saturday Night Live's parody of his daughter "sexist," but had previously told the AP, "One of the great honors of life is to be parodied ... It's kind of an indication that you've arrived at a place of real power."